Editing IG Farben (section)

==Liquidation==
[[Agfa]], [[BASF]] and [[Bayer]] remained in business; [[Hoechst AG|Hoechst]] spun off its chemical business in 1999 as [[Celanese|Celanese AG]] before merging with [[Rhône-Poulenc]] to form [[Aventis]], which later merged with Sanofi-Synthélabo to form [[Sanofi]]. Two years earlier, another part of Hoechst was sold in 1997 to the chemical spin-off of Sandoz, the Muttenz (Switzerland) based [[Clariant]]. The successor companies remain some of the world's largest chemical and pharmaceutical companies.{{citation needed|date=September 2018}}

Although IG Farben was officially put into [[liquidation]] in 1952, this did not end the company's legal existence. The purpose of a corporation's continuing existence, being "in liquidation", is to ensure an orderly wind-down of its affairs. As almost all its assets and all its activities had been transferred to the original constituent companies, IG Farben was from 1952, largely a shell company with no real activity.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Business actors in armed conflict: towards a new humanitarian agenda |url=https://international-review.icrc.org/sites/default/files/irrc-887-slim.pdf}}</ref>

[[File:Poelzigbau-ffm001.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|[[IG Farben building]] in 2007]]
In 2001, IG Farben announced that it would formally wind up its affairs in 2003. It had been continually criticized over the years for failing to pay compensation to the former labourers; its stated reason for its continued existence after 1952 was to administer its claims and pay its debts. The company, in turn, blamed ongoing legal disputes with the former captive labourers for its inability to be legally dissolved and have the remaining assets distributed as reparations.<ref name=BBC1>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/1549092.stm "IG Farben to be dissolved"], BBC News, 17 September 2001.</ref>

On 10 November 2003, its liquidators filed for [[insolvency]],<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/0,1518,273365,00.html |title=Ehemalige Zwangsarbeiter gehen leer aus|work=Der Spiegel |date=10 November 2003}}</ref> but this did not affect the existence of the company as a legal entity. While it did not join a national compensation fund set up in 2001 to pay the victims, it contributed 500,000 [[Deutsche Mark|DM]] (£160,000 [[Pound sterling|stg]] or €255,646) towards a foundation for former captive labourers under the Nazi regime. The remaining property, worth DM&nbsp;21 million (£6.7 million or €10.7 million), went to a buyer.<ref>Charles, Jonathan (10 November 2003). [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3257403.stm "Former Zyklon-B maker goes bust"], BBC News.</ref> Each year, the company's annual meeting in Frankfurt was the site of demonstrations by hundreds of protesters.<ref name=BBC1/> Its stock (denominated in [[Reichsmark]]s) traded on German markets until early 2012. {{As of|2012}}, it still existed as a corporation in liquidation.<ref>{{cite web|last=Marek|first=Michael|url=http://www.dw.de/norbert-wollheim-gegen-ig-farben/a-16373141 |title=Norbert Wollheim gegen IG Farben |work=Deutsche Welle |date=20 November 2012}}</ref>